A Long Time Coming

A Long Time Coming

Those of us in the suspension community aren’t exactly known for our patience. Generally when an idea comes about, the excitement and motivation to make it happen means that we often rush into it. We also know that the willingness to wait can certainly pay off with projects that venture into new concepts or ideas in body suspension. If you think waiting a few months can be difficult, try being a part of a project that was 8 years in the making. This video of Tom Moore in the rotisserie rig by Jared Anderson is the result of years of thought, creativity, and hard work. Although any project will have improvements that can be made, with how smoothly it went for him, it certainly seems like it was worth the wait.

The concept for the rotisserie rig is actually based off of the 360 rig, a piece created a decade ago by TSD which flips a person head over feet while suspended and their group’s early concepts while experimenting with the idea of rotational suspensions. Tom has been in the 360 rig twice, and after his second experience with it 8 years ago, he had the idea of creating a design that would rotate the body in a horizontal position rather than vertical. When it came time to put the plan into motion he worked with fellow practitioner Emrys Yetz to figure out how to best tackle the challenges presented by creating this device and making the suspension possible. Luckily, one of the major pieces of the puzzle, who would build it, was easy to solve. Tom Moore also happens to be the owner of Steel Fetish, a steel design and fabrication company that creates, among many other things, rigging plates for suspension.

With so many skilled practitioners on hand, the Dallas Suscon was a perfect opportunity to make the concept come to life. Tom had 18 hooks placed in his upper and lower back, fronts and backs of his thighs, inner and outer calf, chest, ribs, and stomach. This layout allowed him to transition from superman to side to coma to side in a continual rotation. Due to the repeated shifting of weight and positions, I was expecting to hear that there was a constant pain or settling in feeling moving from hook to hook. Surprisingly, Tom said that with the exception of one annoying hook, as he did more rotations it became more and more comfortable for him. I was happy to hear that it was such a great experience for him. After 8 years of waiting, he definitely deserved to get everything out of the experience that he wanted.

There were so many people involved over the years that it can be hard to name every person that credit goes to. Tom just wanted to pass along, “Thank you to everyone involved, I love you all.” And thank you for sharing this with us Tom. It is a wonderful creation, and I can’t wait to see where you go with it from here.